{"id":19993,"date":"2021-12-08T10:44:39","date_gmt":"2021-12-08T10:44:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=19993"},"modified":"2021-12-08T10:44:39","modified_gmt":"2021-12-08T10:44:39","slug":"i-started-as-a-gps-receptionist-now-im-an-award-winning-nurse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/student-stories\/i-started-as-a-gps-receptionist-now-im-an-award-winning-nurse\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I started as a GP\u2019s receptionist, now I\u2019m an award-winning nurse\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before he was an award-winning nurse, Kombe Mwarandu was working as a receptionist at his local GP surgery. He shares how achieving his Adult Nursing<\/a> degree from The Open University in Scotland has enabled him to achieve his career dreams and give back to his community.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore joining The Open University I didn\u2019t have a degree,\u201d explains Kombe, who is originally from Kenya but lives in Girvan, Ayrshire. \u201cOne of my VISA conditions was to prove that I had integrated well into society, so I thought it would be a good idea to volunteer to help assimilate me into the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kombe began volunteering at his local General Practice and soon landed a reception and administrative role. With a passion to keep learning, he started in-house training and his ambition was quickly recognised by colleagues and patients alike who suggested he pursue a nursing career:<\/p>\n

“I thought to go into nursing I\u2019d have to give up my employment. I had family, I had other commitments and I felt that I couldn\u2019t do that and go into full-time study,” he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy employer said they would support me, and I went home that evening and chatted with my wife and she said she would support me too. So the journey of nursing with the OU started from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The support to become a nurse<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Kombe began studying Adult Nursing part-time with the OU in Scotland in 2015, balancing his studies with work and raising three young children.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a long process, sometimes it was very hard, but the motivation and support from everybody around me made it possible.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to study and have a family life and a social life. It\u2019s a very fine line to try and balance. It was hard but I think because of my family\u2019s understanding from the word go that it was going to be tough, it prepared me and the family to deal with the challenges ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kombe\u2019s employer supported his journey every step of the way, supporting his practice-based learning and offering half a day each week to come into work and catch up on any assignments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe support was there from the OU as well. You had the module tutors and the practice tutors if there was something you weren\u2019t sure about or if you needed help. I felt at ease to phone or email my tutors and they were very accessible. The flexibility of the course made things manageable too because if there was a tutorial it was in the evening and you didn\u2019t need to go to a specific location. You could sit on your own couch and learn that way, which was really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inspired by everyday healthcare heroes <\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"Practice

Kombe celebrates his qualification with his family<\/p><\/div>\n

Though Kombe was inspired to get into nursing for many reasons, it was his own family\u2019s experience of healthcare which continues to motivate him to this day:<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I started nursing my daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumour. It was very trying times because up until then life was relatively well but then you get the diagnosis and feel like the whole world is collapsing in front of you.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we went for the initial appointment and got to meet everyone there, the nursing team, the surgeons, the way they handled the whole process from diagnosis to surgery and thereafter [was wonderful]. I looked back and I thought, in my day-to-day work, if I could try and make even one patient feel the way I felt through that process in terms of the care and support we received from the broader healthcare profession, I\u2019d be really, really happy.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are faced with a really huge thing in front of you, but the healthcare professionals made things look manageable. So that\u2019s one of the factors that made me go into nursing and it\u2019s one of the things that makes me want to come into work every morning. I want to make sure that my patients feel the way I felt at that time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIn doing my job, I just feel that I owe a lot to my community. Coming to work and providing care is a way of me paying back to the community for welcoming me very well and making me feel at home here. I feel the only thing I could do in return is to offer them the best care possible. So I\u2019m paying back to the community for the generosity they showed me all these years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Studying has opened a lot of doors\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In 2018, Kombe\u2019s hard work paid off when he graduated from the OU and began working as a Practice Nurse at the same GP surgery where his journey had first begun.<\/p>\n

After practicing his secondary care skills at placements during his studies, Kombe also continues to pick up shifts at his local A&E department whenever he can, combining work at the Practice and on busy hospital wards.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving studied through The Open University has opened a lot of doors. If I hadn\u2019t applied with the OU, I would still be the same person as before. But years have passed and now I can say that I\u2019ve transitioned from my role as receptionist, to admin staff, to Healthcare Assistant and now to Practice Nurse. I can look back and say those years weren\u2019t in vain. I have achieved something. Now I can also look ahead and think, \u2018what else can I do?\u2019 It\u2019s fantastic.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn top of that, once I graduated, I was nominated for a Queen\u2019s Nursing Institute Scotland Award<\/a>, that was one of the proudest moments of my life. First was when I got married, when I had my children, when I qualified as a nurse and that was another. It was good to see all that hard work being recognised.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther doors will open in the future, as I\u2019m thinking of doing a Master\u2019s degree and hoping to do a PhD. These are things that have been made possible because I took the initiative to pursue my dream and my goals.<\/p>\n

“Looking back, it has been tough, but it\u2019s been worth it, and I wouldn\u2019t change a thing.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2018You can achieve anything you set your mind to\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"\"

Kombe and his family show their pride<\/p><\/div>\n

Before he enrolled with the OU, Kombe admits that his nursing dream may have seemed impossible. Now he\u2019s doing a role he loves, he shares the following advice for anyone who might be on the fence about pursuing their goals:<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst and foremost, I would say if you\u2019ve got any ambition or desire to achieve something, please do it! Studying will be hard, let\u2019s not beat around the bush, but with the right support either from family, your employer, or even from friends, you can do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve got the right support and you\u2019re motivated in what you want to do then you can achieve anything you set your mind to.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before he was an award-winning nurse, Kombe Mwarandu was working as a receptionist at his local GP surgery. He shares how achieving his Adult Nursing degree from The Open University in Scotland has enabled him to achieve his career dreams and give back to his community. \u201cBefore joining The Open University I didn\u2019t have a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19998,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[862,1525,1640,1643],"class_list":["post-19993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-stories","tag-faculty-of-wels","tag-news-home","tag-ou-home","tag-ou-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}